Welcome to the KTH self-study course on research ethics

At KTH, scientists, technology developers, artists and scholars all contribute. Ideas are refined, methods developed, borders questioned, practices studied and devices created in a complicated dialectic of competition and collaboration. Cosmopolitan exchanges with a global community are often seamless and staff mobility high. Quality requirements are naturally high as are willingness to share results.

Annika Stensson Trigell, Professor of Vehicle Engineering and former Vice President for Research, welcomes you to this self-study course in research ethics.

Such dynamics must also be consolidated with high expectations of academic integrity and respect for human dignity. Appropriate risks must be taken, but also handled. Professional relations must be established and nourished, but also scrutinized and channeled. Information must be under control until assessed as shareable. Money must flow, but in transparent channels.

This course is meant to provide a brief-but-broad reminder on the most important research-ethical aspects to consider when planning a research project. Sometimes this may mean to convey a clear international consensus or legal requirement concerning research ethics. However, the overall ambition is to encourage articulating and managing ethical aspects and doing so with structure and foresight. The material's intended audience is from the whole breadth of academic staff of KTH and entails a great variety of traditions and praxises.

There are nine modules in total. Next module is on good research practice and researcher's integrity, which generally founds for quality in research and specifically concerning research ethics. Subsequently, there are some pointers to the most relevant supportive functions for research ethics at KTH. Next, the core of the course starts on making ethics an integrated part of the research plan and assessing various aspects of the research process. A module on the Swedish system for ethics review is available at the end of the course.

Welcome and please go on to the next module!